There is an unspoken contract between writer and reader.

Everybody knows it but nobody talks about it, because we all instinctively know it and recognize it. The writer promises us well-crafted entertainment and in return we let the author sneak in a few personal views. As long as that’s not too much on the surface. Many writers have made use of that. Heck in the latest Stephen King, The Institute, you can read anti-Trumpism through some of the pages, but he has read the contract and he balances it out with some pro-Trump sentiments and of course plenty of thrills and entertainment.

Robert J. Sawyer has not read the contract and if he has, he willfully ignores it. We’re barraged by pages and pages of what the author wants us to think about person-hood, identity and property. This is done by pages and pages of what the author must think is infallible logic all dressed up as a court case. Below that overt litany of views lies a more subtle message: look at how smart I am. At the end I wasn’t just sick of the novel, I was sick and tired of Robert J. Sawyer. Never has an author made me not want to read any of his other works. Not even to verify if this novel is a one-off.

At the very end I didn’t care about the characters, they are as two-dimensional as the robot body they inhabit. The most interesting character in the entire book is the main character’s old girlfriend and we never hear from her again. What I did care about was the strangely gaping plot hole that would have annihilated the entire novel, which brings us to the shaky plot.

The main character pays to have his mind copied into a physical structure that will make the robotic copy identical to the original with the perk that it lives forever. That leaves the problem that there are now two identities, two things that can claim to be the same person. Would a company that provides these services not have thought about all the problems that could arise with that scenario? Apparently not. It never crossed any of the executives’ mind to perhaps have the original person create a specific living will in which the ‘copy’ is made the primary or sole beneficiary. Or even an airtight contract which presages all the thorny ‘philosophical’ questions brought up in the novel. In fact, throughout the lawsuit, this novel is about, nobody from the evil corporation is questioned, consulted or even mentioned. But that’s not important, because what is important is all massive amounts of thinking done by Robert J. Sawyer. That’s what this book is really about, Robert J. Sawyer. ( )

The basic idea of the story about people who decide to have their minds uploaded into fabricated durable bodies is good. The complications that happen were interesting. The story was told in a rather dry fashion and I didn't care for that. I felt that most of the book was pretty empty. The other Sawyer books I've read have been a bit heavy on philosophy, but this one seemed overly so. I did read it all, so I can't say that it was bad, but to me it was not good either. ( )

One of the best books I've read in a long time, BUT the ending was a little weak. ( )

In Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer, Jake Sullivan lives with the knowledge that he has the same rare, hereditary disease that resulted in his father's long time vegetative state. He feels doomed until he discovers with his hereditary wealth he can be mindscanned, a process where his entire brain is scanned and downloaded into a technologically superior mechanical body that doesn't breathe, eat, or sleep and is theoretically immortal. The process, however, results in two Jake Sullivans.

While the flesh-and-blood Jake must renounce all ties to his earthly existence and live out the rest of his days in a deluxe retirement village on the dark side of the moon, the mindscanned Jake ends up starting a relationship with Karen Bessarian, a wealthy author who has also been mindscanned. When the original Karen dies, her son sues to inherit her estate. Meanwhile, the original Jake has cause to rethink his exiled status and the mindscanned Jake begins to hear voices in his head from other Jakes.

Mindscan speculates on the ethics of bio-technology, the nature of consciousness, and the meaning of life. In Sawyer's future socially liberal Canada contrasts sharply with the fundamental Christian-controlled USA. I felt Sawyer is, as usual, taking some swipes at the USA, which readers in the USA will have to overlook.

In general Mindscan is tightly plotted at the beginning and stays focused, until the trial begins and Jake starts hearing voices. The trial dragged out a little long, becoming mostly Sawyer having a philosophical discussion on the meaning of life, bringing in abortion and the question of when life starts. In reality, the question of the rights of the mindscanned "person" would have been addressed by teams of company legal experts ahead of time and a resolution would be in place. The voices sub-plot didn't work for me - it needed to be either better developed or left out.

But Sawyer also has some brilliant moments and funny passages that make you forgive him for some of his problems and excesses. Highly recommended - It would make a good movie with some editing. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

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Second read through this book. Surprinsingly did not remember as much as I thought I would. Interesting story about what defines consciousness. The second half felt more like a trial procedural than sci-fi. ( )